The invention relates to a method and a system for assisting in the taxiing of an aircraft on the ground, and to an aircraft comprising such a system for assisting in the taxiing on the ground.
Aircraft, in particular passenger transport airplanes, are required to taxi on the ground on airport surfaces. The taxiing on the ground generally takes place between a passenger embarkation gate and a take-off (or landing) runway, and vice versa. For that, the pilot of the aircraft must maneuver the aircraft on the airport surface, which generally comprises straight sections linked by bends. The pilot must, in particular, pay attention to not allowing the wheels of the aircraft to depart from the areas provided for the taxiing in order to avoid any risk of the aircraft being bogged down. He or she must also pay attention to ensuring that the aircraft, in particular the extreme parts thereof such as the wings, do not touch an obstacle on the ground such as a pylon, another vehicle, etc. To assist the pilot in this task, some aircraft, in particular aircraft of large dimensions, are provided with a camera and with a screen in the cockpit making it possible to display images captured by the camera. The camera is generally placed on the vertical stabilizer or under the fuselage of the aircraft. A camera placed on the vertical stabilizer makes it possible to obtain images of the top of the fuselage, and of the environment of the aircraft. A camera placed under the fuselage makes it possible to obtain images of the landing gear and of the taxiing surface on which they are moving. These images make it possible to assist the pilot in maneuvering the aircraft. The document EP0980828 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,975) describes a system for assisting in the taxiing of an aircraft on the ground comprising such cameras. However, the images from the camera situated under the fuselage correspond only to a very localized view of the situation of the aircraft, limited to the environs of the landing gear and the images originating from the camera situated on the vertical stabilizer correspond to a view that is more global but in which the taxiing surface is concealed by the fuselage and the wings of the aircraft. Furthermore, the image capture angle is not always that which allows the best interpretation of the images by the pilot. Consequently, it would be desirable to be able to display, in the cockpit, images that make it possible to improve the awareness of the situation by the pilot, in particular, to enable him or her to assess the overall situation of the aircraft on the surface of the airport and, at the same time, assess the position of the landing gear of the aircraft on said surface.